The Battlefield Blog announces the Back to Karkand expansion for Battlefield 3 is now live for Windows PC and Xbox 360. They celebrate the new content for the military shooter sequel with a new trailer showing gameplay on the Sharqi Peninsula map. This page has more details and a FAQ on the add-on, and here's a bit on how this all works:

If you havenít followed us before, Back to Karkand is our first expansion pack for Battlefield 3. It features four legendary Battlefield 2 maps reimagined in the Frostbite 2 engine, with enhanced levels of destruction.

More than just a map pack, Back to Karkand also features 10 new weapons to extend your arsenal (you can bring these new weapons back to the base game maps), three classic vehicles from Battlefield 2, including the STOVL fighter jet (excellent for hovering and capturing bases), Desert Buggy, and and APC, five new dog tags, and an added layer of persistence with the all-new Assignments you need to complete to unlock new weapons.

Now go back to Karkand and let us know what you think in the Battlelog forums! To find your new maps, just use Quick Match or the server browser as you normally would. The four new maps will appear together with the nine ones from the base game. For a full guide on how to use the server browser on console, check out this guide we prepared earlier. Just make sure you apply the latest multiplayer update for Battlefield 3, or you will not be avle to access Back to Karkand.

If you are a Limited Edition owner, you are entitled to this entire expansion pack at no extra charge. Otherwise, you can buy it for PC from Origin at $14,99 or for Xbox 360 from Xbox Live Marketplace or the in-game store for 1200 Microsoft Points.

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I'm glad that the pack is not free to all PC players for one reason. Everyone who wanted to be a drama queen and ragequit their pre-order, but bought the game, has to pay a fee. It's rare that such exacting justice gets dealt out to the entitled masses. I'd have preferred if anyone who ragequit and came crawling back had to pay more than $15 honostly, but I can settle for savoring their infinite tears and butthurt over less than the cost of a crappy lunch on the town.